Ambrose, Murphy feud fires up

Page Tools

Marcos Ambrose in action in his Ford during the V8 supercar race yesterday at the Gold Coast, where he finished second to Greg Murphy.Photo: Andy Zakeli

Ford's V8 supercar champion Marcos Ambrose is a driver under
siege from his Holden adversaries, who yesterday vigorously
criticised him following an extraordinary and ill-tempered 11th
round of the touring car championship on the Gold Coast street
circuit.

Ambrose cemented his grip on this year's title with a second
behind Greg Murphy in the Kmart Racing Commodore. Todd Kelly, in
the Holden Racing Team Commodore, was third in a round in which the
title aspirations of three drivers - Kmart's Rick Kelly, Stone
Brothers' Russell Ingall and PWR's Jason Bright - were dented by
poor performances or crashes.

But any joy Ambrose might have been feeling after establishing a
166-point lead with two rounds of the championship remaining was
short-lived and overshadowed by an unprecedented war of words that
broke out between himself and Murphy at the post-race press
conference.

Tensions that had been generated a day earlier (when Ambrose had
clashed with Murphy's young teammate Rick Kelly in a pit-lane
bust-up after the first of the round's two races) boiled over again
as Murphy made it clear that he believed Ambrose was less than
truthful in his recall of events.

On Saturday night, the Kmart Racing squad had fired in an
official protest about Ambrose, alleging the defending champion had
"brake-tested" Kelly and almost caused a serious accident as the
pair crossed the finish line after race one.

Ambrose had won the heat, while Kelly, who was a lap down, had
finished 21st.

But Kelly had angered Ambrose, who believed the Holden man had
been driving on his bumper for the last third of the race and
unfairly harassing him.

After the pair clashed in pit lane, Kelly accused Ambrose of
swearing at him and threatening him and said that, contrary to
Ambrose's claims, the Ford man had not slowed down to let him pass
during the first race.

Ambrose was quizzed again after the second event yesterday over
Kelly's allegations about brake-testing and making threats. He was
quick to retort that he had done nothing, but Murphy was having
none of it.

"I refute both of the claims totally and that's my stance right
now," Ambrose said.

Murphy, who had finished second in Saturday's first race,
immediately interjected and said: "I flew past you and I was off
the throttle."

"You are allowed to slow down after the finish of a race,"
sniped back Ambrose. "We are fighting for the championship. It's
getting pretty messy - if they want to play that way, (they can). I
slowed down after the race. I totally refute the allegations that I
brake-tested him. I had words with him after the race because I was
upset about his sportsmanship during the race.

"Rick Kelly refused to pass. I was off the racing line, I slowed
down on one lap by two seconds to let him pass. I braked at
approximately half-pressure. It's a crazy discussion . . . It's an
absolute joke the way that Greg (Murphy) carries on."

This fired up Murphy even more. The New Zealander insisted that
Ambrose had done what Kelly had claimed and had brake-tested his
teammate.

Later, Murphy said: "He's got this idea that we should just pull
over and let him win. Now he's denying the whole thing. He used a
lot of very foul language. I don't know what he's on about.
Half-brake pressure - I don't know what he thinks he was doing.
He's now denying it and trying to get away with it.

"It's finally time he realised that we are not there to drive
around behind him. You talk about sportsmanship but I think he
needs to have a look at the meaning of it . . . himself."

Ambrose's humour was not improved later when he was fined
$10,000 for a careless driving charge. Stewards said he had failed
to exercise reasonable care immediately after crossing the control
line.

"I am bewildered with the decision. I had 30 metres over Rick as
he went over the finish line and less than half the normal break
pressure applied. A cone had lodged under my car and had affected
the steering. I tried to let Rick past me several times but he
refused. I'm a little disgruntled with the system."